Partitioning problem: Cubic box 1

[ShadowWarrior]

Hi,

I am trying to partition a simple cubic box, but the partition has to be internal, basically another cubic box inside the original box.
Below is what I have achieved by using Partition Face: Sketch and Partition Cell: Extrude Edges. The box is made transparent to show the internal partition.

My issue is I want the side faces to be intact just like the top/bottom faces to get a uniform mesh on all the faces. How do I achieve this?
Please note that I just want the internal partition, the internal materials should not be removed.

Thanks!

 

[Mustaine3]

Extend all internal faces, so they cut through the whole structure. This should make you part hex-meshable. Then you can play with the mesh seeds to get what you want.

 

[ShadowWarrior]

@Mustaine3, Could you please elaborate a bit?

This box above is just a trial geometry. My actual box has an elliptical void (inclusion) in the middle so creating an internal partition will let me have Hexa-mesh on the outer faces. I have attached the geometry, maybe you would be kind enough to provide some screenshots using this -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7gpyihxzz4r268q/Design1.stp?dl=1

 

[Mustaine3]

I just get a box from your step file.

When your structure is more complicated, then you can also use boolean operation in the assembly module to do something like partitioning.
Create the outer box and the inner region as separate parts. Position them both inside each other in the assembly module. Then use Merge/Cut to merge the parts and use the option "Retain" to keep the internal faces.
Afterwards you can check if additional "regular" partitions are needed for meshing.

 

[ShadowWarrior]

@Mustaine3, My real geometry is complicated, it is filled with randomly distributed voids of arbitrary shape and size generated from a composite simulation. So I can not use Boolean operation, I was hoping to create an internal box containing all voids and an outer box near the faces as there are no voids.

4 out of 6 faces are what I want to have but the face I have sketched and the opposite face needs to have the wall like the other 4 faces. While I have managed to draw the wall on those 2 faces is there a way I can remove the edges on the face?

Transparent:

Wall created by partitioning:

 

[Mustaine3]

I was hoping to create an internal box containing all voids and an outer box near the faces as there are no voids.

Where do you see an advantage of having an internal box with voids instead of just having the general box with voids? I don't get it.

 

[ShadowWarrior]

@Mustaine3, I need to have same meshing pattern on the opposite faces to enforce periodic boundary conditions, the outer box will have no voids resulting in regular meshing pattern on all faces. The general box with voids is not going to achieve this, I tried copy mesh pattern on opposite faces unsuccessfully.

Is there any way I can fill up the removed portion in ABAQUS?

 

[cooken]

The same way you created the initial box. Extrude solid.

Not sure why you are struggling so much with this. There are a wide range of ways to arrive at the geometry you're describing. Here's two:

1. Create larger cube, then partition top/bottom/sides with planes to create the internal volume. You will be left with additional partitioned cells, but that shouldn't be a problem. If it is, use the "remove redundant edges" followed by "remove faces" tool to merge the volumes back together.

2. Create the larger and smaller cubes as separate parts. Then instance them into assembly module and merge them together with "retain boundaries" enabled.

 

[ShadowWarrior]

@cooken, the geometry is as is, can not create a separate box in ABAQUS.

However, I have tried your Extrude solid suggestion and it worked. Thank you!!

Note that the internal face extrusion did not work, I extruded internal side face to another face, shown below -